Chappell Roan, winner of the Best New Artist trophy at the 2025 Grammy awards.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Every year when Grammy voting opens for the Recording Academy I bump up against the same question: Do people even still care about the Grammys?
That's a loaded, and probably ultimately useless, query. No matter how I might feel about the perpetually questionable ceremony that feels like it's been on its way to irrelevancy for years, it's an institution that unfortunately still holds credibility in the eyes of a specific segment of the music industry. Case in point: on October 3, when ballot boxes officially opened for the 2026 voting session and every major outlet one-by-one began unleashing all of their predictions and think pieces about the upcoming ceremony.
We here at The FADER are of the belief that the Grammys isn't the ultimate judicator on good music but, if we were to get into the conversation, there is one category we care a lot about given our stake in emerging music: Best New Artist. The category is incidentally also one of the most ???-inducing fields every year, almost always filled with artists (through no fault of their own) that elicit a "Aren't they, like, on their fifth album?" The Grammys are always, guaranteed, extremely late on new artists, which renders any sort of meaningful statement the award show could make with the award moot. But what would it look like if they were on time? The FADER put together who we think should be nominated for the Grammy’s Best New Artist award at 2026 ceremony if there's any justice in the world.
Geese
Geese tick so many of the boxes Grammy voters prize highly: They show a commitment to craft and fidelity; offer a direct lineage through musical history; have a huge buzz in their genre space; support the notion of "songs that sound good stripped back to just a piano"; and possess good old-fashioned star quality in bucket loads. Plus, they're not even that new!
The N.Y.C indie rockers' new album Getting Killed is their third project and feels like the perfect time for the voting body to jump on board. If nothing else, enigmatic frontman Cameron Winter is everything Recording Academy members are being told Sombr is by major label execs as they maneuver him into a certain nomination. History will be kinder to Geese, though, and that's why Grammy voters should keep them in mind when it comes time to submit their ballots in the run up to November 7. —David Renshaw
Addison Rae
Ethan James Green
Would a hypothetical best new artist win for Addison Rae be the first time a Grammy's ever been awarded to a former social media star? Maybe. I haven’t run the numbers on this one but the mere idea of this possibility makes me smile and think even more that this should actually happen. There are so many things about Addison Rae’s unexpected rise as a pop star this year that feels like it's gone against industry convention: there's her background, of course; the fact that Addison was created by three women only; her first tour being a multi-continental romp sans opener. Her journey that seemingly gets bigger and better by the month proves that she possesses something different — that there's something special about her in some way, even if you disagree with the music (but you might just have bad taste). The Recording Academy should keep that streak going with a Best New Artist trophy, and finally show to the world that they’re also capable of doing something unexpected and actually interesting. —Steffanee Wang
skaiwater
skaiwater. Photo by David Dickenson
It's probably not a huge surprise that we’d want the artist behind #gigi, our favorite album of 2024, to get some shine at the Grammys. That project’s mutant pop-rap wore its deep-fried heart on its sleeve like nothing else that year, but the best new artist case for skaiwater goes beyond one record. You won’t find another artist interacting with both rap’s undergrounds and mainstreams in such a consistently raw and revolutionary way, plumbing the depths of both and revealing new truths.
In 2012, Bon Iver was a well-respected underground voice before winning the Best New Artist award; the victory changed the trajectory of modern indie music. skaiwater occupies a similar space, in my view. The cultural cachet of the Grammys may be in question, but its ability to set narratives isn’t. The skaiwater dominion could begin in earnest with one small push. —Jordan Darville
PinkPantheress
Julian Song, @juliannn_song
How has PinkPantheress not received a best new artist Grammy nomination yet? Whatever the case, this year and the gargantuan, ubiquitous presence that was Fancy That proves that there’s no better time than now. The Recording Academy has a legacy of ignoring music’s outside the confines of pop, rock, and rap, but PinkPantheress’s club and bedroom pop-melding sound for the mainstream sent ripples far beyond her catalog. Four years after her first viral TikTok track “Pain” captivated the internet, a legion of PinkPantheress copycats have populated the scene and dance-influenced music has infiltrated the radio, surely partly because of her. Beyond the commercial success, PinkPantheress has influenced the tastes, style, and trends of her generation. That accomplishment is worthy of a trophy. —SW
Oklou
Gil Gharbi
Oklou's debut album, choke enough, is a revelation. Like previous Best New Artist winner Samara Joy, a nomination (and win) for the French singer and producer would be a decision that purely reflects the industry, the acknowledgement of an artist that, in the short span of a few months, has become a beloved, critical darling. It's true that her strain of pop music, frictionless, slippery, and hypnotically beat-less, has the potential to influence a new wave of producing. Were the Recording Academy to jump on this wave now, they could for once claim to be setting a trend. —SW
